1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to radiant burners and, particularly, to radiant burners used to grill food in a barbeque.
2. Background Art
Ceramic plates are often used to create radiant burners. The plates may be between 0.25 and 1.0 inches thick with a plurality of small-diameter holes passing through the thickness of the plate. A mixture of a flammable gas, such as propane or natural gas, and air is provided on the underside of the plate. As the mixture passes through the plate, the gas and air burn and release heat which is transferred into the ceramic plate. The plates become red hot and therefore radiate infrared heat. A portion of the radiated heat is directed towards food that is placed on grills positioned above the ceramic plates, thereby cooking the food. This type of cooking is particularly suited to cooking meat, wherein it is desirable to sear the surface of the meat.
One of the drawbacks of the current method of providing radiant heat is that the radiant burners become clogged with grease that drips off of steaks and other meats as they are cooked. Previous radiant burners are constructed as boxes with the top surface provided with the ceramic plates with certain regions blocked to gas flow.
FIG. 1 depicts such a radiant burner 10 where hatched region 12 indicates the area where ceramic plate 12A is exposed while the region 14 is blocked, i.e. such as solid sheet metal or ceramic cement. Only a portion of the total surface of 10 is configured to expose the ceramic plate 12A so as to provide the appropriate amount of radiant heat for cooking food. A gas/air mixture is provided at inlet 16.
A cross-section taken on line a-a of FIG. 1 of this existing design of radiant grill is shown in FIG. 2. The gas/air mixture that entered through inlet 16 fills the cavity 18. It can be seen how the perforated ceramic plate 12A covers the entire top of the cavity 18. Certain regions 14 of the surface of the ceramic plate 12A are blocked such that the gas/air mixture can pass only through the open regions 12. The arrows indicate the flow of the gas/air mixture from the cavity 18 through the ceramic plate 12A.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged area 3 from FIG. 1 that illustrates one of the drawbacks of current designs. A spot of grease 19 has dripped onto the region 14 adjacent to the surface 12 of a ceramic plate 12A and has not burned off as there is no heat in area 14. Grease 19 that falls onto the surface 12 of a red-hot ceramic plate 12A tends to immediately burn off. Grease 19 that falls onto the blocked region 14 may continue to build up on the edge of the blocked region 14 over time as this grease 19 does not burn off. The built-up grease 19 will tend to flow into area 12 and block the holes (not visible in FIG. 3) of the ceramic plates 12A, eliminating the heat in that portion of area 12. Over time, the grease-covered area expands as indicated by the rings T1-T5 as the holes on the edge of the grease-blocked area are incrementally blocked. It is difficult to clean the ceramic blocks 12A as scrubbing may damage the ceramic plates 12A and will not remove grease that has flowed down into the holes.